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I had never attempted the PE paper and pencil, although back when I took the FE it was still a paper test. The provided manual definitely changes your study approach. It becomes much more critical to understand how that reference is laid out and how to find what you need quickly. It is available in PDF form during the exam on the computer and it is searchable. However, it is slow to load and very difficult to scroll through. The other thing that was very different was the timing. There is no one telling you to break at the 4 hour mark. For example, you can choose to spend 5 hours on the morning session if you like and the additional time you took will be deducted from the afternoon. Time management is completely on the test taker. The test centers will not give you normal pencil and paper for your scratch calculations either. You will be provided a laminated book with a marker. All things that I appreciated being aware of before going into the test.

I had never attempted the PE paper and pencil, although back when I took the FE it was still a paper test. The provided manual definitely changes your study approach. It becomes much more critical to understand how that reference is laid out and how to find what you need quickly. It is available in PDF form during the exam on the computer and it is searchable. However, it is slow to load and very difficult to scroll through. The other thing that was very different was the timing. There is no one telling you to break at the 4 hour mark. For example, you can choose to spend 5 hours on﻿ the morning session if you like and the additional time you took will be deducted from the afternoon. Time management is completely on the test taker. The test centers will not give you normal pencil and paper for your scratch calculations either. You will be provided a laminated book with a marker. All things that I appreciated being aware of before going into the test.

laminated book with a marker sounds awful. interesting that they let you manage your own time though.

maybe a dumb question but i'm assuming they only give you one monitor to use? if so, that must kind of suck having the reference manual and test open in the same window? sorry if i missed this but do they let you bring in a paper copy of the ref manual too?

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I'd be curious to know the difficulty of the CBT versus the paper/pencil exam and if anyone here has taken both. I'd *think* that the CBT would be slightly easier since you can't lug in all your references and the exam is no longer fully open-book, other than the supplied reference. I'd be curious to know if that's actually the case.

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Your assumption is correct, there is only one monitor to use. The reference manual and test are setup to be viewed in a split screen format. It does make the screen a little crowded, especially when the search bar in PDF files is factored in. They do not allow you to bring in a paper copy of the reference manual. The policies are very strict about what you can bring into the testing area. Most people were surprised to learn that they couldn't even have water.

I can't speak to the difficulty of the test compared to the pencil/paper, but I will say that I felt the CBT was comparable in difficulty to the practice exam available on the NCEES website. The reference manual is almost 600 pages of equations and charts, so it still provides plenty of material to ask questions about. I felt it was easier to have a reference manual already available for studying purposes. However, the downside to that is you can't bring in any solved problems to reference, you can't make any notes to assist you, and you don't determine the layout and can't tab the document to find what you need quickly.

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CMacc, did you feel you were able to answer all the questions from the reference manual provided? Did you miss the ability to bring in other references? Like, txjennah, I’m assuming the questions will NOT reflect formulas, charts, etc from outside books, but will instead only reference the provided reference manual?

Thank you!

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Yes, I felt like I could answer all the analytical questions using the formulas, charts, etc. that were in the provided reference manual. The plant design questions tended to rely more on industry experience and less on reference material, so I would say that those are the exception. It is easy to sit here after the fact and think that I may have gotten certain questions right had I been able to bring my own references, but honestly it probably would have just been more distraction/flipping through pages.

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Yes, took the PE Chemical, CBT on June 15 and found out June 20th that I had passed! CBT provides for a very quick turnaround on the results!

Highly recommend the 2011 and 2004 NCEES practice exams as good preparation.

Practice exams by NS Nandagopal were very good and good preparation, although the question format in which one scenario has 4-5 questions associated is different than the NCEES format, but the material was still very relevant.

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Seems like chemical is only the discipline so far which is currently offered as CBT. Based on what I'm reading here, you can't bring your own references/textbooks anymore?! Can anyone else please share their experience? Thank you!